Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) unloaded Thursday on House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for tying Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s sinking poll numbers to the House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks.
In an interview on CNN, Massie said McCarthy “owes an apology to the families” of the four Americans who died in the 2012 attacks in Libya. He also said McCarthy needs to apologize to Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who has been leading the special Benghazi panel.
“The Democrats are right to criticize him,” said Massie, a tea party Republican who serves on the House Oversight Committee, which previously investigated the attacks. “I would criticize him. I think he owes an apology to the families and probably to Chairman Gowdy because he’s diminished the work that Chairman Gowdy has done.”
Massie also took issue with the offhand nature of McCarthy’s remarks, which were made during an interview on Fox News.
“What Kevin said sounds like something you would hear in a smoke-filled back room on ‘House of Cards.’ It’s not appropriate in Congress,” Massie said.
Massie joined a chorus of politicians from both sides of the aisle who have condemned McCarthy for boasting about the political damage the investigation has done to Clinton. Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner, have denied that the House Special Committee on Benghazi ever had a partisan focus. Top Democrats have called for Boehner to disband it, calling the panel a waste of “millions of dollars in taxpayer funds.”
Watch Massie’s comments to CNN below:
One of the weirder aspects of this controversy is the idea that the GOP has really harmed Hillary’s chances of becoming president (whether at citizens’ expense or not). She still leads all Democrats and easily beats every one of the GOP clowns.
Well, well, a silent teasvengali does a rare talkie…The Benghazi Committee fire must be getting hot enough to evaporate tea. House of Bubblegum Cards would be more fitting for this Texas billionaire-owned junior clown.
Golly, the GOPers are really going full frenzy on this. They’re desperately trying to save their credibility, what little there is, by sacrificing and destroying Kevin McCarthy. No speakership for you!
The last point depends on which poll you cite.
According to the most recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (released this week), Hillary Clinton leads Jeb Bush by 1 point and Trump by 10, but trails Carson and Fiorina by 1 point each. Joe Biden actually outperforms her in all four hypothetical matchups.
Driving down her negatives perhaps. These are really hard to overcome once they’ve “set” in public opinion.